Dear Venturers, I am finishing up a beautiful 1500’s kirtle (because why not) and it’s not-so-accurate chemise (about a 2 or 3 on the accuracy meter) and I decided to attempt the infamous blackwork in an attempt to add some class to my kirtle (it was supposed to be a higher middle class outfit, but then I fell in love with some BROWN linen at the store so here we are).  Blackwork example… I also got a new hen after the passing of sweet Daisy Bug. Her name is Genevieve and she loves sitting in my hand… Ginny in my hand Daisy after a photoshoot (don’t mind the inaccurate lace😆) So I looked for some patterns and j found some examples which depicted a rooster and I knew that that must be incorporated at once!  See the rooster at the top? To preserve my own mental health (and finish the chemise before Saturday), I decided to only embroider the corners of the collar.  I started by sketching out the design with a pencil. Then I will embroider (backstitch) with black threa...

Dear Venturers, I came across these interesting photos on Pinterest and I wanted to share them with you. I absolutely love looking at paintings that depict a time in history, but are painted in another time in history. Such as this c. 1800’s painting which seems to display a 1700’s scene.  You can the little 19th century details peeking through. And, as promised, here are the Art Deco 1700’s ladies The look is sort of growing on me…

 Dear Venturers, Ill start off  by saying that this is a somewhat un-usual post. I was doing some research on 18th century things, and I came across an intriguing article. As I'm reading through it, something seemed very off. The wording was so strange that I busted out laughing at some of it! It took me awhile to see the notice which explained how the article was translated by a machine. Long story short, here is the article so you can read it for yourself... https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20180110-dress-18th-century/ Also, can you pass this 18th century fashion quiz? https://create.kahoot.it/share/womens-18th-century-fashion-history/700a2d52-b33e-4ddb-941a-516ec62d3863

 Dear Venturers, Here are not one, not two, but THREE amazing reasons why you need a treadle sewing machine even if you don’t sew… 1. Can expand for multi-book purposes 2. Can play with the treadle part while studying  3. Will inspire you to write a blog post instead of a paper BONUS!! Helps remind you of all the fun sewing projects you wish you were working on instead of studying

  Dear Venturers, Here are some photos to make you feel all warm and fuzzy! I wanted to throw this last one in here because I think it’s neat.

  Dear Venturers, Good morning! A few weeks ago a completed an 1890’s-1900’s ish capelet, but I’m just now writing about it… I have to say that I’m not very pleased with it at all and it looks horrible, but, hopefully you’ll be able to make something decent since I obviously cannot.  Here’s some pictures I used as guides: I really like the ruffle along the bottom in the first and second one, so I might add that on later. I also want to add a ruffle around the neck as well. I like the collar look better, but I don’t trust myself to make a nice looking collar 🤣 The Fabrics: I used a pretty heavy, off white fabric.  I also wanted to line it with some lovely olive green silk that I’d been saving for years. It would have been BEAUTIFUL, and a stunning statement underneath the white, but, it turns out that I did not have enough of it. Sigh… So, I used a yellow-y silk (I despise the color, but the feel of it is so soft that I couldn’t get rid of it!). It’s almost the same color...